Month: July 2016

Country, and a politician’s sentiments concerning his preference for acts of betrayal against it and the people

Country of birth and upbringing of a politician should never be compromised by that politician. Politician ‘X’ recently wished that the e-mails of his rival, Politician ‘Y’, became hacked by the intelligence agency of a foreign nation. That foreign nation is a long time enemy of his country. His rival, Politician ‘Y’, is a former first lady and secretary of state of his nation.

Politician ‘X’ also hoped that the intelligence agency would make the hacked e-mails of Politician ‘Y’ public in his country.

Politician ‘X’ is a long standing supporter of this enemy nation. He seems committed to this nation rather than to his own nation.

This long time enemy of his nation has nuclear tipped ICBM’s aimed at every city in Politician ‘X’s’ country. Politician ‘X’ expressed his sentiments about Politician ‘Y’s’ e-mails in a recent news conference. Foreign news agencies covered that news conference.

He does not seem to understand the enormity of his expressed wish and hope. His expressed wish and hope bring into question his long standing claim that he is for love of nation etc., including fellow politicians. It also brings into question his claim that he’s going to serve his nation’s best interests if he’s elected president.

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Nation and state are two terms whose differences we ought to understand.

Nation and state are important terms that should be clearly understood, especially by those of us who have an interest in politics. There is a distinct difference between the two terms nation and state; but to some of us, that difference seems unclear. A nation can be defined as, “a large aggregate of people united by common decent, history, culture and language”. A state can be defined as, “a territory considered as an organized political community under one government”.

“Nation” refers to People, those of the same ethnicity whose size is large enough to allow them to be deemed a nation as defined above. “State” refers to Territory, Government and its Institutions, the territory and Government of a nation or nations. Government institutions are those arms of government which implement government policy, directly or indirectly, in part or whole, for the benefit of the people and the state.

The state may or may not be a partial or full provider of welfare assistance to people. It must, however, be the provider of services in such areas as: the judiciary, law and order, national security, piped drinking water, ports of entry, education and the political economy. These and several other areas are vital to the perpetuity of a nation and state.

It is through the state that the most noble ideals and aspirations of a nation are realized. It is through the state too, that the practical and common good is realized. It is also through the state that a nation sometimes realizes the lowest depths of failure, degradation and disgrace. We remember Hitler’s Third Rich.

A nation can exist without a state. A nation does not have to be settled and have a physical homeland to be a nation. A nomadic people who meet the criteria of a nation above is a nation.

The Biblical nation of Israel, before its exodus from Egypt, was not settled in a homeland of its own but it still was a nation. They were slaves in the land of their masters but still saw themselves, and were treated by others, as another nation.

They did not have statehood. They demanded of Pharaoh to let them go, and he did. They then journeyed to their homeland and created a homogeneous state. A state needs at least one nation for its existence.

A colonized people who meet the criteria of a nation and live in their own settled homeland is a nation without statehood. Colonization does not destroy the nationhood of a people; and independence does not confer nationhood upon a people. Colonization and independence are related to statehood, they are not related to nationhood.

A state can be comprised of one nation or it can be comprised of more than one nation. A nation-state or homogeneous state is a state comprising of only one nation. A multinational-state is a state comprising of two or more nations.

Poland is a good example of a single-nation or homogeneous state (about 98% of its population are ethnic Polish). Belgium is an example of a multinational-state. Its northern region is home to ethnic Dutch people (54%); and its southern region is home to ethnic French people (36%). The US also is an example of a multinational state.

A nation is a mass of people who share the same ethnic connections and gene pool. A state is a land area and its functioning government and political machinery, and the body of laws by which it governs.

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Old sayings and truth, if there’re connected, should be seen as having such a connection when closely examined.

Old sayings and truth are understood to be reflected in the sayings “The love of money is the root of all evil”, and “Self praise is no praise”. Is this view of these and other such sayings correct?. The first saying has always been inaccurately interpreted. The second saying, similarly, has always been, not only misunderstood but used in attempts to destroy the self image of others.

The source of the first saying is the Holy Bible. The origin of the second saying may be lost in time even though we know when it first appeared in writing.

The book of 1 Timothy 6:10 states, “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” (King James Bible)

The saying, “Self praise is no recommendation” first appeared in writing in the early 19th century. It however, may have been in use verbally, in one variant or another, long before this time.

Concerning the Biblical quote above, 1 Timothy 6:10, it can be read thus, “For the love of money is the root of all evil [of the type]: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” (Textual content in square brackets is added by this writer.)

The love of money can lead to one or more of “all” of the “evil” practices which can be related to the love of money. In the case of this quoted passage, the evil practices pursued are the coveting of money “which while some coveted after,” and the rejection of God’s intended way of life for us “they have erred from the faith,”.

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They (who covet money and reject God’s intended way of life for us) experience the consequence of their sinful action even in the temporal life “and pierced themselves through with many sorrows”.

Those who covet money as mentioned above, ignore the tenth commandment in the Holy Bible, Exodus 20: 17; Deuteronomy 5: 21. The passage quoted above clearly expects us to practice this commandment even in relation to matters involving money.

‘The love of money is the root of all money-based evil.’, is a more accurate usage of this saying. The traditional usage of this saying, ‘The love of money is the root of all evil.’, seems to suggest that the love of money is the motive behind all evil.

Evil existed long before the advent of man, and longer still before the creation and use of money. The love of money, therefore, could not be the root of all evil. There also is evil practiced by man that has no connection to money or its use.

“Self praise is no recommendation”, is the earliest written variant of this saying. Like most of these types of sayings, this saying was created by simple rural folk in response to certain situations involving people and property. The type of person and situation for whom this saying was created, were perhaps aptly addressed by the saying.

This saying, however, was not created for use against persons whose performance in their field spoke well of them. A person’s work can and should recommend them, according to the quality of that work.

Old sayings and truth can and many times do have a connection, but this is not always the case. Using our old familiar sayings is convenient, conservational, nostalgic and can save us a bit of time, so let us continue to use them; but let us use them with a little more understanding for increased accuracy and effect.

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Diary keeping, the practice, its types and their advantages.

Diary keeping as a practice allows us to be able to say a few things about it. Diary keeping is a good practice for any person and, additionally for some of us, it is a necessity. Those of us who record or intend to start recording entries in a diary, irrespective of the frequency of those entries, might need to ensure that our present or intended method of diary keeping is optimal for our needs.

We then can consider changing our method or intended method of diary keeping if we find that it does not meet our requirements.

Many people who do not keep a diary now, may have been interested in keeping and attempted to keep a manual diary in the past. Many such persons might have given up the practice out of concern that the diary might fall into the wrong hands and to their detriment.

The lives of some of those persons, over time, may have changed, giving them more reason to want to keep a diary now. There may be a greater need now, more than was the case in the past, to record their thoughts, speech and actions.

About diary keeping here’s a reminder, that we can keep several diaries simultaneously, with each diary being used to record activity of a different type. For example, we can keep a different diary each for: personal activity; work activity; individual hobbyist activities (with each hobby having its own diary) etc. This helps to simplify information retrieval and quicken up the process.

The manual form of diary keeping appeals to the person who prefers to write and edit their entries by hand. The risk of ones diary falling into the wrong hands is therefore one that such persons might have to endure. Much of what has been said so far has been about manual diary keeping.

What about diary keeping using digital technology? The digital diary offers a much smaller degree of risk of falling into the wrong hands than the manual or hand written diary. It also is not accessible by hackers if it is kept offline.

The digital diary is totally accessible (for adding entries, reading, editing etc.) using any computer, server, gadget, external drive and location that are connected to the internet. It can be shared across multiple: computers, servers, gadgets and external drives using an Ethernet connection. It can be located on any computer, server, gadget, external drive or the cloud, in any location, and can be online or offline.

It thus is a relatively safe and very convenient form of diary; and it should appeal to those who are interested in the digital world and information technology.

There are, then, three options for diary keeping based on the media used and the corresponding method of adding entries to the diary. They are, the manual diary, the digital diary and the double diary (using both manual and digital diaries). Diary keepers and prospective diary keepers can decide on their diary keeping preferences, and then choose the type of diary that meets their requirements.

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Nano Poblano 2017

About Me

Writing is my favourite activity, and
I write original essays and original creative composition. I also enjoy reading the writings of others. I hope to publish a collection of essays and creative compositions, and after this, a book on one topic.